


Don't Laugh at me

by Ouikawa



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Bullying, But I worked forever on this, M/M, Selectively Mute Character, Selectively Mute Yamaguchi, idk what to tag honestly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-21
Updated: 2015-09-21
Packaged: 2018-04-22 16:53:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4843085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ouikawa/pseuds/Ouikawa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yamaguchi Tadashi never was an outgoing kid. He wasn't the smartest and he was a lot scrawniness then everyone else. He was seen as different and was constantly made fun of. He was put down so much that he eventually couldn't even bring himself up to talk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Laugh at me

Yamaguchi Tadashi was a nervous wreck. He always had been. He was never the smartest and it took him a bit to understand things. He really did like learning, and he liked school. But he didn't catch on quickly. He was constantly teased for not understanding certain things, or not being good at a game. He began to like school less and less. He wanted to like learning, he used to like learning. But teachers just saw him as dumb as well as others. But he worked really hard to get a good grade. And whenever he got it he was happy. 

In school he was also bullied. He made made fun of for his freckles. He thought there was nothing wrong with them but everyone seemed to laugh at him for them. He didn't like it. It only seemed to get worse, he wasn't strong. He was pretty weak actually. Other than that, his voice was cracky and sounded funny according to others. He always got nervous speaking in front of others. His nervous manner added to his "weird" voice. He stuttered a lot and mispronounced words. Even more the reason for people to laugh at him. It made him even more anxious. He wanted to stop talking. 

And he did.

His parents tried to get him to talk but he wouldn't speak. It kept going, he didn't speak for the longest time. He wouldn't speak to his teachers, or classmates, or anyone really. If they were lucky they'd get a syllable from him. Almost nothing came from Yamaguchi Tadashi's mouth. The kids would snicker and talk about him while he was in ear range, the feeling of sadness weighed deeply in his gut. He hated hearing the insults. He even gave the kids a note asking to stop making fun of him. They'd scoff, rip the paper and say, "why don't you just ask me to? Oh wait, you don't speak." And just walk away.

He didn't understand why they were so mean. Was being different that bad? Why did he have to be like everyone else? He wanted to be like the others but he couldn't. He looked too different and acted differently. No matter how hard he tried to fit in he knew he wouldn't.

Yamaguchi couldn't win this fight. What did people want from him? He talked- people made fun of him. He didn't talk- people made fun of him. What did he have to do to make people stop making fun of him? His anxiety grew deeper and deeper on him. He always felt so trapped and conflicted. If he did something wrong he could be made fun of for it. He could never look someone in the eye without having extreme worry, he was always hesitant to make a move- it was a huge bother in sports. He was never sure in what to do and constantly got hit by the ball- more reason to be laughed at by others.

He didn't like loud noises or being yelled at, he tried hard to not make any mess ups. He still ended up messing up... a lot. One person he was never really worried around was his uncle. His uncle was hard of hearing, which was hard for him and Yamaguchi to communicate in the beginning but they managed. His uncle taught Yamaguchi sign language. Surprisingly enough, Yamaguchi caught on quickly. It made his uncle happy and the two would have long conversations with one another, signing back and forth to each other. 

His uncle came often and sometimes Yamaguchi would walk to their house and they'd sign to each other. Yamaguchi would sign to him the little good things that happened to him such as "he got an answer right" or "he did well on a test" or "he got everything right on homework." They were small things but they meant a lot to Yamaguchi. And his uncle always congratulated him for them and never said they were stupid. He even told him about little animals he saw or something funny on TV or a book he read. He always had a lot to say but never had anyone to talk to. He was thankful his uncle listened.

Yamaguchi found it easier to sign then speak, his words often failed him and he was often too frightened to talk. The other kids thought it was stupid for him to not talk. They thought it was stupid that he was afraid to talk. He tried to stay as far away as possible from them. It didn't really work out. The kids often poked at his freckles on his arms or legs, or even his face. He resorted to wearing long pants and long sleeve shirts. They often stole his backpack and made him run for it. They even made him speak if he wanted his back pack back. He would tremble and shakily mumble out a few words. They'd snicker and throw his bag back to him and walk away. He hoped they'd stay away.

They didn't. They never did.

They occasionally pushed him around and mocked him. Yamaguchi had no other choice but to do as they said. He hated how weak he was. He wanted to be stronger, he wanted to stand up for himself (or at least someone to stand up for him.) He knew it would probably never happen. No one appeared to like him. If they did, they never did anything or said a word to him. But even if they would've talked to him he probably wouldn't have said anything back. 

He continued grade school, it felt like it last forever. He had no friends and was constantly pushed around. But his grades were decent. He was the smartest, but he almost never flunked a test. He mostly got B's, if he was lucky he got an A. He really did study hard, at least that showed. But it's not like anyone really cared by then. He could barely tell anyone about it anymore. His uncle visited less and less as he progressively grew more sick. Yamaguchi always tried to visit him, but one day his uncle wasn't there. Yamaguchi had to attend his uncle's funeral. 

He was sad to put it simply. He wanted a friend, someone to talk to. Someone that wouldn't make him feel horrible like everyone else did. He had his uncle for a while, but then he was gone too. But he couldn't resent him for it, he wanted to but he knew it wouldn't be fair. His uncle was always nice to him. Yamaguchi missed him. The only thing that he looked forward to was small notes he got from a person he wasn't sure he knew. 

The notes were usually "don't let the bullies get to you, they're dumb" or "I think your freckles are nice" or other plain nice words. Yamaguchi got them almost every other day. He desperately wanted to know who sent them. At least one person didn't hate him. Sadly, he never found who wrote them, but the messages never stopped. They always brightened his day- even if it was just a little bit, it was almost the only thing that made him smile at school.

One day after school the usual group of kids were picking on him again. They told him to carry their backpacks since he needed muscle. There were too many backpacks and he just couldn't carry all of them. He ended up falling and the kids began to call him name and make fun of him. He tried not to cry but ended up crying anyway. They made fun of him for crying too. A tall boy somehow came to the scene. He didn't know where he came from, was he just walking by. He just stood there for a while and watched. One of the boys interrogated him and asked him what he was looking at.

"Pathetic." The boy said simply.

The entire group of boys (along with Yamaguchi) were shocked. Was he referring to Yamaguchi too? Whoever he was referring to, it was definitely shocking. He began to walk away as the group was silent. A boy told him to wait and he simply towered over him and replied with a "what" Yamaguchi could've sworn that was the most intimidating face he had ever seen. He scared away the bullies leaving Yamaguchi sitting on the ground, face still stained with tears. He wished he was more like the other boy, he was tall and seemed strong. He envied him.

After a long silence between the two he began to walk over to Yamaguchi. He tried to wipe the tears from his face and sniffled, was he going to tell him he was pathetic? He stared at him for a while before crouching down and taking out a few tissues to wipe his tears. He was oddly gentle and Yamaguchi was shocked. After cleaning off his face he sat down across from Yamaguchi.

"Are you okay?" He asked gently, he still had a poker face, but his voice seemed gentle and calming.

Yamaguchi opened his mouth and tried to get out words. He quickly closed his mouth and looked down and nodded his head. 'I'm pathetic' he thought.

The taller boy scooted closer. "I'm Tsukishima. Who are you?"

Yamaguchi looked up at the boy. He wanted to speak, but he couldn't find the words. Yamaguchi shakily raised his hands and signed a 'my name is Yamaguchi. And thank you for helping me.' He doubted the other would understand him but it was worth a shot.

To Yamaguchi's surprise Tsukishima raised his hands. 'You're welcome.' He signed. 'Are you mute?'

Yamaguchi shook his head. 'No. I don't like to speak.' He signed back. 'You know how how to sign?'

'A little.' Tsukishima then took out a notebook from his bag. 'Write in here, I'm not very good at sign language.' He wrote and pushed the book towards the freckled boy. 

The two boys wrote back and forth to each other and Yamaguchi felt like he actually had a friend. He looked a lot happier, he even laughed which was the happiest sound to come from him in a long time. Tsukishima wrote about a few new figures he had gotten and how he'd wanted them for a long time, Yamaguchi wrote about books he was interested in that he had finished recently. They discussed countless things, it was the most fun Yamaguchi had since his uncle died. Tsukishima was a lot nicer then he appeared. Yamaguchi was glad.

'You should teach me more sign language.' Tsukishima wrote down, he seemed a bit hesitant at first, but he wanted to be able to talk to his new found friend.

Yamaguchi was a bit shocked. Everyone else thought sign language was weird. Eagerly, he wrote out his reply. 'Okay.' Yamaguchi had the widest smile on his face that day.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed ! If you caught any typos or mistakes let me know. My Instagram is Shirabukenjirou and my tumblr can-kaneki :)


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